UK: Church Leaders Ask Government to Ban Pointed Kitchen Knives
Knife control has arrived
I’m so old I remember when “knife control” was a joke and not a thing that was under serious consideration.
Church of England leaders in the Diocese of Rochester have joined forces with “leading crime experts, as well as MPs, and community leaders,” in a letter asking the government to consider banning pointed kitchen knives.
From Premier:
They’ve written an open letter asking for a ban on the sale of pointed kitchen knives. The letter was also signed by leading crime experts, as well as MPs, and community leaders.
It comes after a conference called The Point in Chatham last week raised awareness of the issue, as statistics show that there has been an 80 per cent rise in knife crime in the UK since 2014.
The signatories have urged Government to “take urgent measures to promote the sale of safe kitchen knife designs and restrict those designs which have been used in so many acts of violence.”
…It continues: “A five-year study in Edinburgh found that of the sharp instruments used in homicides, 94 per cent were kitchen knives. Research demonstrates kitchen knives are used in a large percentage of homicides due to their availability and lethal nature.
“Criminologists have demonstrated that reducing availability in turn reduces crime.
And then they go on to suggest the only people who need sharp pointy knives are those too lazy to find scissors.
The letter endorses research, highlighted at the conference, which explains that points on domestic knives are historic and no-longer necessary.
“Historically we needed a point on the end of our knife to pick up food because forks weren’t invented. Now we only need the point to open packets when we can’t be bothered to find the scissors,” the letter reads.
The UK, who has ridiculously strict gun laws, has experienced skyrocketing “knife crime” in recent years. It’s almost like people who are hellbent on committing acts of violence will do so, with or without guns. Almost.
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Comments
Why don’t they just make stabbing people against the law?
Why don’t they just make any pointy object that can be used to stab people illegal? Pens, pencils, crucifixes, pointy words,…
Poin-ted sticks? (Monty Python reference)
That’s crazy talk, what next? Banning running over people with cars?
you mean a statue (knife angel) made from knives collected by local police in UK didn’t stop knife crime?
how dare criminals not obey the law…..
I agree. No one needs to own an automatic high-capacity knife. The only reason someone would own a knife like that is to kill a lot of people and carve up thick juicy steaks (MEAT IS MURDER!!).
We need red flag laws and common sense knife control. Stand up the the powerful knife lobby!
Careful now, you’re going to get SWATTED for putting that Porter House or bacon wrapped filet mignon on the grill…. 😉
As a fellow recovering Lutheran myself I thought this was a joke at first but with the UK tax slaves and woke scold crowd the absurd has become reality.
There are many kitchen tasks where a pointed knife is useful, e.g.to remove the eyes from potatoes. I can think of many other uses, but I won’t bother to list them. I wonder if the people who thought this up ever do any food preparation
So you want to allow just any unlicensed person with mental health problems to gouge out the eyes of potatoes? What’s next – permit then to slice up a head of cabbage and boil it alive? Chop off the tops of carrots? Dice onions? You fiend!
try starting initial cut on any squash type food with a blunted end knife.
would need to use ax/hatchet more often which would lead to bans on them.
Blind potatoes!!!
They are Brits, every thing they eat is boiled until uniformly grey…. no sharp pointy knives needed.
It’s too bad the COE has been appeasing is lam instead of spreading the Gospel and standing firm.
It’s also a shame GB has been appeasing the ideology that is creating the terror.
It is critical to ban the high magazine capacity clip loading assault knives. No rational person needs one of those.
Or whatever.
Particularly, the black scary looking ones.
Those multi-slot knife blocks! I would cross my fingers and say when it comes to knives I “Shun” them.
“…when it comes to knives I ‘Shun’ them.”
I see what you did there, alaskabob!!
https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/shun-kaji-3-piece-knife-starter-set/?catalogId=69&sku=8596769&cm_ven=PLA&cm_cat=Google&cm_pla=Cutlery%20%3E%20Knife%20Sets&msclkid=ba74cbffa17a13d33c6c96756e57b5f3&adlclid=ADL-7f87aa81-bb7e-4395-ab7f-c9c62d64d3de
“Shun Kaji 3-Piece Knife Set
Sugg. Price $701
Our Price $449.95”
I’ve been in the restaurant business all my life, with a short 20 year break to serve as a Naval intelligence officer.
Not a professional chef though, so I’m well satisfied with my Mercer culinary knives with their high carbon German steel blades. They’re strong knives, look brand new even though I’ve used them for years, and hold an edge extremely well. If I were a professional chef and could write the purchase price off as a business expense I’d “Shun” knives, too.
It’s not like Mercer Cutlery knives are exactly cheap.
The only knives in my kitchen that don’t have pointed tips are my bread knife and my meat cleaver.
rounded edge bayonets for all then !!!!
Ah, the good old days. I remember when Joe Biden faced down a “bad dude” named Corn Pop outside a public swimming pool where Joe was the only white lifeguard. Corn Pop was a gang leader, so he had three other “bad dudes” with him.
They were all threatening to cut him up with rusty butter knives.
Joe stood his ground, though. “You may cut me, Corn Pop,” Joe defiantly said, “But not before I wrap this swimming pool noodle around your head.”
That took the starch out of those gang bangers. Confronted by a swimming pool noodle and a man who was ready and willing to use it, the gang bangers turned and slunk away.
It’s difficult to believe the authors of this letter don’t see how stupid it is.
And the double-edged scalpel, which has been the instrument of choice to progress a global genocide.
hmm. what else in the UK has seen a tremendous uptick since 2014?
Definitely not IQ test scores.
It should be noted that historically, London’s murder rates were greater during Shakespeare’s time… which means … a lot of bodkins were bared.. and then some. Gun control really hit stride in England in the early 1900’s from fear of Communist uprising against the monarchy and the Irish issue. Wimbledon was initially a target range. More than the Sun set on the Empire….
Next up — razor blades.
Once-Great Britain, now the land of cowards, sheep and imbeciles.
A while ago in England they banned swords and knives so the people started carrying canes, ie Shillelagh Clubs
A shillelagh is a wooden walking stick and club or cudgel, typically made from a stout knotty stick with a large knob at the top. It is associated with Ireland and Irish folklore.
Can’t have armed Irishers running around!
Just watch; eventually they will ban sticks and rocks and have a rock and branch buyback program.
Swords and Clubs are legal for carry in Texas again as-of this month. I’m curious if collapsible/tactical batons fall under the definition of “club” and are therefore legal now too (for civilian carry). Anybody know?
Not surprised that the COE came up with the banning pointed knives. These are the same people that encourage women, sodomites, and child molesters to be Church “leaders”. Pathetic.
Isn’t the COE the “church” which has ordained at least one bishop (or was it the archbishop of Canterbury?) who didnt believe in God, or even god(s)?
Just ban all knives. No one should be allowed a weapon of war.
Next ban knife sharpeners because a knife can be reshaped to have a point with it.
I honestly thought they had already banned most knives in England so I was somewhat taken aback by this article. I know they’ve talked about it and I was pretty certain it’s already become law, so it comes as no surprise.
A recent full moon was Chinese Moon Festival. Originally simply a harvest festival, it features small pastries with egg and various forms of bean paste inside. Families would make them and exchange them.
The first Dynasty to unify China was the “Chin” or “Qin” Dynasty from 221-206 BC. As opposed to Confucian principles, it ran on what was called Legalism. Pretty much “we make the laws, you do as you are told and/or you die”. Hard core tyrants. Did not go over well. 15 years is not a long dynasty. The First Yellow Emperor [Chin Shih Huang-ti] was an effective tyrant, his son the Second Yellow Emperor [Chin Er Huang-ti] was less competent. Still, the measures put in place by the father made raising a rebellion difficult.
One of the measures was allowing only one cooking knife to be shared by 5 families. With only that as weapons, coordination was needed. According to legend, messages were baked into the moon cakes and passed around. On the appointed day according to the messages, designated men took the cooking knives and ganged up on individual and small groups of soldiers, killed them, and took their armor and weapons. And the newly armed peasants, plus those with knives found more soldiers to kill, etc.
It ended eventually with the Imperial Palace burning, with the Emperor and his court and concubines inside it. And the crowning of China’s first peasant emperor Liu Bang, and the founding of the Han Dynasty. Incidentally, it was considered one of China’s golden ages and we are still the Han people.
Just sayin’. Maybe the Brits can learn something from other empires and peoples.
Subotai Bahadur
As I understand, Han bureaucrats were superb at their job… efficient and “invisible” …just like a good butler.
This is a joke, right? Criminologists have determined we don’t need the point on a knife. Is it still a knife, if it is shaped like a ruler? What about the points of pens or pencils? Why not have a pen without a point?
First they came for the guns
and I did not speak out
because I was not a NRA member.
Then they came for the knives
and I did not speak out
because I did not need a knife
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Just wait until they come out against fruit and pointed sticks…
Yeah, they need to enroll everyone in a self defense course called “How to defend yourself against a man attacking you with a banana…or a pointy knife.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqISLI2UQMY
Eventually bowling balls will make the list.
I thought Bowling Balls was a sexually transmitted disease?
They never realize that criminals don’t obey laws. Gee they must be criminals breaking laws.
They’re coming for your golf clubs next…
The U.K is Lost
It’s been gone a very long time.
Recently I’ve been watching some old Agatha Christie movies, with Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple; made in the early ’60s. Also the excellent BBC series starring Joan Hickson, which had marvellous location shots, from the ’80s.
Each time I’m saddened by seeing the magnificent England that was, but that exists no more.
Once it was, “The King is dead; long live the King.” Nowadays it’s “The King is dead, and there’ll be no more; we’re working on a caliphate.” It’s heartbreaking.
People who cook know that the point on the knife is often helpful and occasionally essential.
People who think know that if points on kitchen knives weren’t useful the knives wouldn’t have a feature which is hazardous to a careless cook.
People who neither cook nor think shouldn’t talk about what features kitchen knives don’t need.
I wrote a longer comment on the subject below, including a video of how to debone a chicken leg. The leg included the back. Note the cook uses the tip to insert the knife under the backbone. I also went off on a rant that England has clearly earned its reputation for awful food. If the only justification these exalted fools “leading” English churches can come up with for banning KITCHEN KNIVES with pointed tips is that now that the fork has been invented we no longer need knives for eating then clearly the lunatics are in charge of the asylum.
Exhibit 45209871:
https://dailycaller.com/2018/05/03/british-man-arrested-for-wielding-potato-peeler/
The guy faces four years in prison for carrying a potato peeler “without good reason.” To carry a knife with a blade longer than 3 inches in public you need a valid reason.
Nobody involved in this craziness, not even the man’s own defense counsel, has bothered to point out a potato peeler is not a knife.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to know what kind of insanity awaits us if you vote Democrat, I give you the United Kingdom.
Why not ban everything with sharp edges, blunt objects, baseball and cricket bats, blackjacks, fists, fingers, automobiles, razor blades, ice picks, fountain pens, soccer balls, gasoline, airplanes, blowtorches, hammers, screwdrivers, nail guns or anything else that might harm another person. Better still, order everyone to wear padded suits made of Kevlar to prevent any damage to their bodies.
This is idiocy defined!
Don’t give them any ideas. They’re now charging people with violating the ban on carrying knives with blades longer 3″ in public without a good reason (and the court decides what is a good reason so anyone so charged has to justify themselves to a lunatic) for carrying kitchen utensils that aren’t knives.
Police Expert Witness testifying in court: “The miscreant was in possession of cheese grater in public, M’Lord. A cheese grater can inflict a nasty abrasion when used with ill intent. The defendant is clearly a danger to the public and must be imprisoned for the maximum term permitted by law.”
Obviously if this law is passed the U.K. will be crime free in no time at all. AND of course the muslims will stop attacking & killing people and so will disgruntle spouses and ordinary criminals. Problem solved, the dark side of human nature is once and for all controlled, no more need of police.
This is the result of runaway Humanism. What has happened in liberal modern societies is that the individual can not be blamed for his or her actions and, therefor, can not be held responsible. All actions are to be tolerated and allowed. But, reality has a nasty habit of rearing its ugly head. Some acts, actions and practices are simply not conducive to the smooth functioning of civilization. They can not be allowed. But, how to do that without blaming the person who commits those acts? Blame the acts upon an inanimate object, of course. The theory being that people are inherently good and kind and any behavior which is not, must be the result of the influence of some outside source. People are driven to murder by weapons. Men who commit rape ot engage in marital infidelity were “seduced” by a woman. Get the idea. Knife control is just the latest attempt to strip the individual for the responsibility for his or her actions. It denies the reality that the individual human being is an amoral opportunist whose actions are held in check by what we call society. Eliminate those checks, based largely upon responsibility, and you revert to chaos.
Here in the UK, I thank God for gun ownership being a privilege, not a right exploitable by almost anyone. & I’m not even religious. Nor am I afraid of Anyone – ever. Most murders here are ‘domestic’, hence the use of kitchen implements! That said, the Church often sings Loony Tunes as well a hymns – even Instead, nowadays..
It was a difference of opinion on right vs. privilege r.e. weapons that sparked a little dust up called the American Revolution. Thank God. And most Americans haven’t changed their minds on the subject (and our Supreme Court agrees that we have an individual right to bear arms
There is something about this website that causes every computer I’ve ever owned/used to use maximum disk space/memory the longer I’m on it. As in writing a comment. The page stops responding, it will refresh causing me to lose the comment, submit the partial comment automatically, or crash the browser. I tried to complete my response to Iain but no dice; the page stopped responding then auto-refreshed.
It appears I have to type my comments in Wordpad, then cut and paste them and restore the lost formatting before submitting. I barely have enough time for that.
The MSM is in full propaganda mode. They and the Democratic Socialists (they are all socialists now and Alexandria Occasional-Cortex is the de facto leader of the party) want “assault weapons” banned. There is no such thing as an “assault weapon.” There is a definition of assault rifle and the German STG44 established that during WWII. But “assault weapon” is a grab-bag category of whatever rifles looks scary to snowflakes.
But let’s stick to one rifle that is currently scaring the snowflakes the most. The AR-15. It must not be sold in this country and all rifles currently in circulation must be confiscated.
It’s crazy talk to think the government can go door-to-door and round up 11 million illegal aliens. But go to door-to-door and round up 8 million AR-15s (the number currently in the hands of citizens; include AKs look-alikes as the leftists always do and the number tops 20 million)? Not a problem.
But I digress. The AR-15, we are told by barely literate leftists is a “weapon of war” (somebody please name one single military that uses it as a general issue rifle) and the weapon of choice for mass shooters.
Oh, really? The New York Times is hardly a bastion of 2nd Amendment enthusiasts and gun rights absolutists. They conducted an “analysis” recently and found that 173 people were killed in mass shootings with AR-15s from 2007 through 2018. I accept their raw numbers but not their hysterical analysis.
Sounds like a lot doesn’t it? The NYT and the rest of the MSM want you to think it’s a lot. And I must be a cold hearted uncaring bastard for pointing out, that’s not a lot.
I don’t remember what definition of mass shooting they used as there is no official law enforcement definiton of one. I’ve used up my allotment of free articles for the month and I’m not sending them a dime to refresh my memory. Federal law defines a mass murder as a single episode in which three or more people are killed regardless of weapon. The FBI uses that definition when compiling its crime statistics. A widely accepted defintion of mass shooting is any single episode when four or more people are shot (injured or killed).
But regardless of what definition one uses the math doesn’t lie. Since there’s no such thing as .4166 of a person I’ll round up. Over a the twelve year period the NYT uses 173 people is an average of 15 people per year. To put that number into perspective, an average of 13 people per annum are killed when they try to shake something loose from a vending machine and it falls over and crushes them. In 2017 a record low 16 people were killed by lightning in the US.
The MSM wants people to think that we have an epidemic of crazed shooters killing people en masse with AR-15s. People in other countries think Americans must be nuts because they are told we have blood running in the streets and Americans still won’t give an inch when it comes to banning “assault weapons” such as the AR-15.
When the truth is the odds any single one of the 320 plus million Americans (this is why you can’t compare raw American crime numbers to New Zealand’s with just under five million people, Australia with nearly 25 million people, or even Great Britain’s with nearly 64 million people) getting killed by a mass shooter using an AR-15 is somewhere between getting killed by a vending machine or being struck by lightning.
I don’t worry about any of these. Sane people don’t worry about such things.
I too have problems with this web site. In my case, the web site switches over to a Your Mac is Infected with Awful VIruses web site. This only happens once, when I first open an article. But the message board is slow and awkward. I don’t know if they’re selling ads or if they are infeted themselves.
UK Church Leaders Ask Government to Ban [Pointy Sticks]
Church of England leaders have joined forces with “leading crime experts, as well as MPs, and community leaders,” in a letter asking the government to consider banning [Pointy Sticks].
They’ve written an open letter asking for a ban on the sale of [Pointy Sticks]. The letter was also signed by leading crime experts, as well as MPs, and community leaders.
It comes after a conference called The Point in Chatham last week raised awareness of the issue, as statistics show that there has been an 80% rise in [Pointy Stick] crime in the UK since 2014.
The signatories have urged Government to “take urgent measures to promote the sale of [Pointy Stick] designs and restrict those designs which have been used in so many acts of violence.
“A five-year study in Edinburgh found that of the sharp instruments used in homicides, 94% were [Pointy Sticks]. Research demonstrates [Pointy Sticks] are used in a large percentage of homicides due to their availability and lethal nature.
“Criminologists have demonstrated that reducing availability in turn reduces crime.”
‘As In The Days Of Noah’
A lady pastor, dressed in black clergy garb and collar was sitting with several couples around a large round table. There was a lively discussion about “fundamentalist” Christians, and how deluded they are. “The problem,” this lady pastor laughed, “is that so many people are stuck in the mindset of what they have always been taught. But now we KNOW so much more. Now we have SCIENCE, which explains so many things that were mysteries to the Bible writers. If only these fundamentalists would open their eyes and adapt to the times!”
Rob Pue
This is stupid on so many different levels. First, maybe I’ll make a handy youtube video showing how easy it is to put a point on a rounded/blunt tip knife with a grinder. Unless they plan on banning those, too. It would only take a few minutes and if you’re worried about the heat treatment just watch the color of the steel and keep a bucket of water handy to cool the knife off.
If you’re really worried about it use a file and do it by hand.
Second, these idiots are talking about banning pointy kitchen knives. Why do these idiots claim the points on kitchen knives are a historical anachronism?
“The letter endorses research, highlighted at the conference, which explains that points on domestic knives are historic and no-longer necessary.
“Historically we needed a point on the end of our knife to pick up food because forks weren’t invented. Now we only need the point to open packets when we can’t be bothered to find the scissors,” the letter reads.”
To eat with them! Uh, newsflash. You don’t eat with kitchen knives, you prepare food with them. So this might be an argument for blunt tipped steak knives (Not that we’ll need those much longer if the lefties get their way and ban cattle) but not for kitchen knives.
Full disclosure. My Miracle Blade steak knives do have sorta roundy tips. You could still stab with them if you’re so inclined. But I didn’t buy them for knife fighting. I have much better knives designed for that purpose. And I sure as hell didn’t buy them to please the Church of England, which as Mark Steyn points out is best envisioned as Jesus driving around in a Prius with his partner, and Anglican Bishop, in their committed gay relationship, complete with a “coexist” bumper sticker.
Kitchen knives, or rather chef’s knives, have tips for a reason; some situations call for using the tip. For instance, deboning meat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYzS8NsZ-Y
Thus confirming that Heaven is where Italians are the chefs, The English are the police, and the Germans run the trains. Hell is where the English are the chefs, the Germans are the police, and the Italians run the trains. When I call these people idiots I mean it. They call for a ban on pointed kitchen knives, then advertise they don’t have clue one why kitchen knives have points, thus betraying the fact they don’t even know basic chef’s cutting techniques, don’t know their way around a kitchen, and solidly locking in place England’s clearly well earned reputation for awful food.
Finally, here’s what happens when you focus like a laser on the weapon instead of the criminal. I was going to slip in a crack about like a child with autism. Which wouldn’t be an insult to children with autism as autism is sometimes called the “little professor’s disease.” People at the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum can become quite expert on a very narrow topic. That’s why I would have said “like a child with autism” as they share the same narrow focus but entirely miss the point (pun intended) and missed the “become quite expert” part by a country mile. “Gun violence,” “knife violence,” what’s next for jolly old England? This:
https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/britain_seeks_ban_on_pint_glasses/
On your next trip to England, if you visit a pub don’t surprised if they serve it in a pint-sized sippy cup.
Acid is cool but no decent cooking utensils?
Even sadder is this American woman who values safety over freedom. Can we send her to Iran?
https://twitter.com/dcexaminer/status/1176288479245950976/video/1
“You guys value freedom more than safety.”
American woman in Hong Kong begins lecturing protesters in the street.
“Is this ok? Is this respectful?” she asks them.
No self-awareness here. Best comment was the first: why don’t they make stabbing people illegal?
Evil always finds a way to do evil. The only things that stops evil are good people strongly opposing it, whichever way they can.